


The Forecast

by Jenthetrulysly



Series: trulyslytherin's LJ Prompt Party [4]
Category: Hawaii Five-0 (2010)
Genre: Domestic, Family, Fluff, Get Together, Humor, M/M, Pre-Slash, Slash
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-10-19
Updated: 2012-10-19
Packaged: 2017-11-16 14:58:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,923
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/540707
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jenthetrulysly/pseuds/Jenthetrulysly
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The weatherman on the news channel announced that Oahu was in for some pristine beach weather, with endless blue skies and not a cloud in sight. </p><p>Danny couldn’t help but agree.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Forecast

**Author's Note:**

  * For [ms_artisan (artisan447)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/artisan447/gifts).



> Original Prompt: 
> 
> ❤ Rachel decides Danny is right, and Grace would be better off staying in Hawaii with her father when she and Stan go to Vegas. Danny's pretty happy until the reality of the situation kicks in and he realises he needs somewhere better to live, a reliable babysitter, some cooking lessons. Steve has ideas. :) ❤

_Sunshine, with not a cloud in sight_

Danny was feeling pretty happy, chipper even, like nothing was going to ruin his good day. Since Rachel and Stan were going to Las Vegas, he was going to have her for two whole weeks rather than the traditional weekend. He loved to spend time with his Monkey and there was a spring in his step when he ascended the stairs of the Palace, fresh coffee and bag of hot malasadas in hand.

Once he reached the Five-0 offices, he was greeted with the sight of a blissfully empty office. Since it was still early, he had a good solid half hour before Steve arrived. Even though they had a warehouse bust scheduled later in the day (Danny hated those as he always ended up being carted off to Emergency either bleeding or in pain or both) and a looming pile of reports to write, with a smile on his face he sat down on his chair and opened his laptop, keen on getting the paperwork out of the way as soon as possible.

 

*

 

_Dropping temperatures, with grey clouds rapidly approaching from the West_

It wasn’t until he was interviewing the homeowners of a theft case somewhere in Kahala when the sunny disposition began to wane. The kid friendly opulence that surrounded him reminded him of how kid _un_ friendly his own place was. As Steve often put it, it was a hovel, barely fit for habitation by one person. There sure as hell wasn’t enough room for two people.

“…Danno?”

He certainly didn’t like the idea of Gracie wandering outside in his neighbourhood by herself, or even into the garden out back. He wasn’t sure even if there was a garden. One or two days were fine, but she was going to get bored there. He didn’t think he had entertainment for her, and she was going to get bored. On a cop’s lousy salary, he wasn’t going to be able to take her out everyday. Damn, Stanley certainly had an advantage over him.

“Earth to Danny!”

Furthermore, where was she going to sleep? He didn’t mind sleeping on the floor, but would only do it as a last resort. The carpet there hadn’t seen a vacuum cleaner since it had been laid, and he’d rather prefer to not get head lice, really. The fancy hotels were too expensive, even if they did have the dolphins. Grace would have loved the dolphins. 

“Danny can you hear me?”

Snapped out of this alarming trend of thought, he looked up to see Steve staring at him with something akin to irritation on his face.

“No, no, don’t you even think of doing such a thing,” Danny automatically chastised as Steve rolled his eyes. “No, wait, sorry – what was the question again?”

“I was just saying, the Ming Dynasty vase stolen was worth $5 million,” Steve explained as passed Danny a photograph of the cream and amber porcelain. “It’s rather big and fragile, so they would need to take precautions when moving it so that it doesn’t break.” 

The detective studied the photograph carefully before replying. “If a strange van pulled up in front of the house, someone’d have noticed something. These folks,” he paused to hike his thumb over his shoulder toward the window. “Would have noticed. And would have said something.”

“So you think this is an inside job,” Steve concluded as he placed his hands on his hips before scanning the surrounds one more time. Danny’s theory would make sense, but there was still a long way to go before this case was solved. He turned to look at Danny, who was looking out the window with a muted expression on his face. 

“Yeah,” he replied in a distant voice before returning his clear blue gaze back to Steve. “Let’s go and pull up all the personnel files of the people who work here. That might give us a lead.”

Curious, Steve looked out of the window to see a swing set swinging back and forth lightly in the mid-morning breeze, and a cubby house in the back yard. He heard Danny heave a sigh. “Bet she’d love to have a swing set.” There was a pause, as if Danny was resigning himself to some sort of bad fate before he said, “C’mon, we have work to do.”

 

*

 

_A cold front has moved over the Islands, and there are high chances of a rainstorm in the immediate future_

Steve and Danny were sitting in the park at the front of the Palace, savouring lunch on a bench underneath one of the ubiquitous palm trees which helped them achieve balance between enjoying the sunshine and being fried. The air was fragrant with the scent of plumeria and the rich meaty smell of the hamburger from Danny’s garbage plate, which he was happily demolishing with gusto. 

“Don’t forget to breathe, Danno,” Steve stated, amused. 

Danny looked up briefly enough to give him the stink-eye. “If I had an exercise freak for a partner who insisted on climbing up all 43 flights of stairs rather than go for the elevator like any sane, reasonable person, I’d be famished too.”

Steve poked his fork through the salad and roast chicken, trying to find a way to approach the issue. Danny’s comment earlier that morning about the swing had intrigued him. Who was Danny seeing? 

“I’m not an exercise freak,” Steve replied before shoving some lettuce into his mouth. Throat working as he swallowed, he took a drink of water before continuing. “Some of us like to stay healthy, rather than let our lifestyles get to us.” He paused to stare pointedly at Danny’s stomach. 

“Yeah,” Danny paused thoughtfully, “Well, most normal people don’t flaunt it every chance they get. Most people don’t get off on the fact that they look like they’ve come out of a cover shoot for Sports Illustrated. I’m healthy enough.”

“Danny, you eat enough saturated fats for five people.”

Throwing his plate down, Danny sighed. “Jesus, I thought we were over this with the thing about the loafers. Have you been counting calories for me or what?” 

“Those malasadas you eat every morning, full of sugar and unsaturated fats. That garbage plate there,” Steve pointed to the rapidly cooling gravy coated mass on Danny’s plate. “More carbs then you really need, the protein’s good for you-” 

Danny just stood up and upended his half eaten lunch into the bin before sitting down and running a hand through his hair. He sighed dramatically before glaring at Steve, “There, are you happy now?”

“Momentarily yes,” the Navy SEAL paused to rummage through the plastic paper bag to extract a fork wrapped in a napkin and a large plastic bowl of what looked like Caesar’s salad. “Now I’d be more happy if you had some of this. Vegetables are good for you, you should try them every once in a while.”

Eyeing him critically, Danny accepted the food. “You had this all planned didn’t you?” 

“Seriously, you need to eat more healthily, you can’t live on fast food and coffee all the time.” The Navy SEAL explained, expecting one of their rambling arguments which usually ended with far more hand gesticulation (on Danny’s part, at least) then necessary. He was however very surprised to see his partner’s shoulders slump and his form slide several inches lower on the bench, his legs parting. Swallowing past the rapid lump in his throat, Steve ventured, “Hey, I didn’t mean-”

“Jesus, what am I going to do? How can I look after Grace if I can’t even-”

“Whoa, okay buddy.” Steve said, lifting his hands. “Calm down. Deep breaths. Start from the beginning.”

Danny spent the next few minutes trying to. Slowly his heartbeat lessened and his breathing evened out. He had gotten himself worked up and Grace wasn’t due to live with him for another week. Where was he going to find the time to arrange for a place for them to live? Healthy food for her to eat? Rachel was going to kill him if he had to roll Gracie back home.

From the top, it all came pouring out of him in a very long sentence. Steve had to strain his ears to catch every last word. “So Rachel and Stanley are going to Las Vegas and Gracie’s coming to live with me for two weeks ‘cept for the fact that I don’t have a house and I don’t even have fucking _lettuce_ to give her or toys for her to play with. So let me say it again,” he met the Navy SEAL’s gaze. “What am I going to do?”

“You and Gracie can come and stay with me,” Steve said, not missing a heartbeat. “I’ve been to your hovel, Danno. Child Protection Services would whisk her away in a heartbeat if they saw the squalor you live in.” 

“Not all of us can live in beachside splendour like you do. Forgive for being a little more plebeian,” Danny shot back. The truth was, the offer was tempting, as he was dead certain that Gracie was going to love the beach and the fact that Captain America here ate more vegetables then was physically required was a bonus. The icing on the cake was that Gracie was extremely fond of her Uncle Steve, who was pretty much one of her ohana.  

As if reading his thoughts, Steve helpfully added, grinning. “Yeah, you can bet that Grace will have a blast. I’ll see to it personally myself.”

“Yeah,” Danny finally succumbed. “Okay.”

 

*

 

_Easing showers as the storm front moves out to sea_

Danny was very surprised when he stepped across the threshold to Steve’s house and saw how kid friendly the place looked. Steve had made a conscious effort to tidy the place up and had brought out a box of some of Mary’s old toys for Gracie to play with. He did a quick mental scan, and recalled how Steve had promised to remove every knife, gun and hand grenade out of his daughter’s reach.

He let out a whistle as Steve brushed past him, carrying shopping bags full of pink linen and some new soft plush toys for Gracie, “Woah, you really went the extra mile here.”

“ETA is 20 minutes, Danno,” Steve replied hastily as he dashed up the stairs to place the toys and linen in Gracie’s room. “Get something ready for dinner!”

Danny dumped the bags of food on the counter before he began to pull out a selection of vegetables, rice and some chicken to make a stir-fry with. He also pulled out the packet of cake mix so that they could make some cupcakes with Gracie tomorrow.

The rice was cooking and the vegetables had just been peeled and washed when Danny realised that he had nothing to season the stir-fry with. In their frenzied trip to the supermarket he had forgotten to pick up a jar of honey soy sauce to use with the chicken. Since the chicken was already being lightly fried, he didn’t have much time. 

No problem, he would just improvise and make his own honey soy chicken sauce. He pulled the container of honey from the fridge and rummaged through Steve’s pantry until he found a bottle of soy sauce. He barely managed to avoid rolling his eyes when he read the label and saw that it was the ‘salt-reduced’ variety.

Except, there were a few snags along the way. The honey was thick rather than runny, and by the time he managed to get it off the spoon the chicken was almost overcooked. He added the soy sauce to the chicken and stirred quickly until the honey dissolved. Danny turned up the heat and finished cooking the chicken, before deciding to take a small taste test.

From above he could hear Steve rumbling down the stairs as the gravel crunched under moving car wheels outside. Grace was here! 

However, the euphoria was very quickly replaced by a sense of dread when the first few drops of the sauce touched his tongue. It was too salty and bitter, and definitely not how honey soy chicken should taste. Somewhere along the way he must have burned the soy sauce, or something. The doorbell rung and his partner cut across the living room, before he stopped in the doorway of the kitchen, his face scrunched up. “Danno, what happened here? It smells _salty._ ” 

Coming from a man who woke up to the smell of brine every morning, that was saying something. “I, uh, we may have to call for take out,” Danny replied. “Kwan’s good for you?” 

Steve shrugged, “Yeah, I guess. Open a window or something. It reeks.” He went to answer the door as Danny picked up the phone and dialled the familiar number before ordering a small selection for the three of them.   

He had just hung up the phone when a speeding torpedo directed at him, almost knocking Danny off his feet as Gracie squealed. “Danno!” 

“Hiya Monkey!” Danny hugged her, surprised at how quickly she was growing. It seemed like only yesterday that he was cradling her head and that her little fingers could barely wrap around his own. “Gosh, Daddy is so glad to see you!” He looked to the doorway to see Steve smiling, looking at him with a bizarre expression on his face. If he didn’t know any better it looked like longing. However, he blinked, and Steve was gone.

 

*

 

_Endless blue skies and limitless sunshine. No chance of rain._

After a filling meal of professionally made stir-fry and egg rolls, Steve washed the dishes and Danny dried them while Grace swung her legs back and forth as she sat on the counter, watching them work. 

She had just finished telling them about the class trip to the beach to collect seashells when Danny asked, “So Monkey, what would you like to do next? This is your time, so anything you want to, honey.” 

“Let’s play dress-up!” Gracie said, moving to slide off the bench and run up the stairs towards her room. “Uncle Steve brought out some of the best dresses and shoes ever!” she called out before disappearing from sight. 

Danny almost dropped the plate in his hand, his eyes widening as he slowly turned towards Steve. “Steven.”

“Yes, dear?” The nerve of him! The detective wanted to throttle him right then and there.

“Clothes?” Danny asked, “ _Shoes_?”

If anything, Steve burst out laughing. “Oh for fuck’s sake, Danno. I dragged down a box of Mary’s old clothes from the attic and picked a selection for her. Nothing sinister, I assure you. They’re a little retro, of course, but Gracie will like the colors and flowers if anything.”

“You know,” Steve added, his voice becoming serious. “You and Gracie are always welcome here - rain, hail or shine.”

Something was off about his tone of voice and Danny finally really looked at him, and caught the intense hazel gaze burning back at him. It smouldered with want, which was barely simmering below the surface. He gasped, feeling his heart thud and his throat click as he swallowed, mouth dry.

Steve took a step closer before bracing his soapy hands on the sides of Danny’s face and leaned down for a tentative kiss.

Suddenly, everything made a lot more sense. Sure, partners had each other’s backs through thick and thin and went the extra mile for one another, but this, _this,_ had somehow transgressed the barrier between deep friendship to something more. Partners didn’t go out of their way to bring healthier food for the other or nag each other the way they did. Partners didn’t turn their homes into makeshift hotels at the drop of a hat or go hunting through the attic for long lost possessions for play dates.

Partners didn’t get under each other’s skin the way they did for each other. The frustration and lack of personal space, the non-existence of which was just given, should have set off the alarm bells. Danny realised that everything Steve had been doing, from the nagging to the lunches to the late nights just sitting out on his lanai with cold beer in their hands to this, was done because he wanted to please Danny. The thought left him feeling so giddy that he actually laughed.

The tension eased out of Steve shoulders as Danny laughed against the kiss before he wrapped his arms around Steve’s broad shoulders, angling his head to minimise the rasp of stubble before kissing the taller man’s cheek.

“Babe, we wouldn’t want to be anywhere else,” he let go and took a step back to catch his breath and quell the raging fire. “Monkey’s waiting for us upstairs.”

“And when she’s asleep?” Steve asked huskily, trailing a hand up the side of Danny’s cloth-clad arm, leaving tingles as he rubbed meaning on the detective’s shoulder before he leaned in to whisper against his ear. “I’m sure we can have some real fun then.”

“McGarrett,” Danny said sternly, crossing his arms across his chest. “I don’t put out on the first date.”

“The night is still young,” Steve replied smarmily as he breezed past Danny and headed out of the kitchen. 

They walked out into the lounge room and up the stairs, just as the weatherman on the news channel announced that Oahu was in for some pristine beach weather, with endless blue skies and not a cloud in sight.

Danny couldn’t help but agree.

 

PAU


End file.
